Nathan Jones interview: A lot of people said I overreacted but I am an emotional man

Telegraph

25-05-2025

It was one of the most extraordinary sights of the season. Moments before the final whistle in Charlton Athletic's play-off semi-final victory over Wycombe Wanderers, Nathan Jones sank to his knees on the touchline and raised his arms in rapturous prayer. With his eyes closed and his back arched, the Charlton manager was overcome by a swirl of different emotions.
There was relief, of course, that Charlton's dream of promotion to the Championship remains alive. There was pride in his team, who now face Leyton Orient in Sunday's League One play-off final. And there was also, he said after the game, a sense of what this could mean for his own personal quest to answer those who have doubted him in recent years.
All the emotions for Charlton manager Nathan Jones as the final whistle sounds at the Valley! 🥹 pic.twitter.com/SoAQrFDb8z
— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) May 15, 2025
Inevitably, the dramatic nature of his behaviour on the touchline did not impress everyone. On Talksport, former Watford captain Troy Deeney described it as 'a little bit too much'. And in the brutal world of social media, Jones was pilloried by some less-than-friendly accounts.
None of this, though, will feel particularly new to a manager who remains one of the most fascinating – and divisive – coaches in the English game. A deeply religious man who enjoyed enormous success with Luton Town, building a reputation as one of the brightest coaching minds in the Football League, but also lasted only nine months at Stoke City and just 95 days at Southampton.
Is Jones a genuine managerial expert, or a coach who excels at so-called smaller clubs but struggles to impose his methods at bigger teams? It is still hard to say. Your answer might depend on which team you support. What is evident, however, is that promotion with Charlton this weekend would add further weight to the argument that it was Stoke and Southampton who got things wrong during his time at those clubs, rather than Jones himself.
To be clear, Jones is not personally worried about such discussions. These are debates for the outside world, rather than issues for him to confront. 'I have no idea what the perception is of me,' he says ahead of Sunday's final. 'I don't do that. I am not looking at my standing or what it [promotion] does for me. I want to be at this football club. I love where we are and I want to take this club forward.'
'I am emotional and sometimes that runs away with me'
But that is not to say he is unaware of the mixed response to his actions last week. 'I am an emotional person and sometimes that runs away with me. That was an outpouring of relief and emotion. I can't remember why it happened, how it happened. It just did.
'A lot of people have said it's probably an over-reaction. I have been guilty of those in my career, both as a player and as a manager. That is something I have to live with. I work really hard, and a lot of people in my life sacrifice a lot of things for me to be able to do that. Sometimes all that comes to the fore.'
Many of those who have worked with Jones, or played for him, would say that this passion for the job is one of his defining qualities. His intensity and personal sense of drive is clearly a fundamental part of his personality as a manager, whether other people like his style or not.
'People are looking for something to bring you down'
'What happens during a 90-minute game, you can't control it,' he says. 'That's sport, that's emotion. When someone wins a gold medal, do we criticise them if they jump around and run around? No, because it's emotion and euphoria. That's the great thing about sport.
'Now, people just want to see a reserved, calm [manager] where you don't speak out of turn or give anyone anything [away]. That's the trickery. It's any time you are in front of the media. The higher you go, the worse it is. They look for things to pick you up on, to twist and turn, and that is the world we live in. It's sad, really. I don't really care [about the perception] but I am aware that the world, society and people are looking for something to bring you down.'
If Jones can lead Charlton to success on Sunday, it would mark an extraordinary turnaround since his appointment in February last year. He took over a team who had not won a match for 14 games and were only three points above the relegation zone, and kept them up comfortably. This season, they won 16 of their final 23 games to reach the play-offs.
'I am very proud of that,' Jones says. 'It is tough to turn around, especially with such a big club as this. To come from where we were, to where we are now, it has been a meteoric rise. A lot of people have had to do a lot of good work for that. We feel it is just rewards for a really good body of work over the last 14 months.'